Jockeying for State Dept. Job Under Way

As Barack Obama deliberates his Cabinet choices, the chorus of "Pick me! Pick me!" begins in earnest, with many eyes on Condoleezza Rice's chair, reports the Wall Street Journal. Hispanic groups are pushing for their own Bill Richardson, a former presidential rival who ultimately endorsed Obama. But the UN ambassador under Bill Clinton faces stiff elbows from his predecessor in that job, Richard Holbrooke, and Sens. Richard Lugar and John Kerry.

Some reports give Kerry the inside track, because he endorsed Obama at a bad time for the then-insurgent candidate, supposedly in exchange for the State slot—or so the New Republic tells it. A spokesman for Lugar, who has worked with Obama and Joe Biden on the Foreign Relations committee, says the senator isn’t interested.